The Levelling Up Fund supports town centre and high street regeneration, local transport projects, and cultural and heritage assets. The competitive fund is worth £4.8billion across the UK, with at least £800m to be set aside for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland over four years from 2021 to 2025.
The results of the second round of the Levelling Up Fund were announced in January 2023, with £2.1 billion awarded to 111 projects. Combined with the first round approvals, the Levelling Up Fund has awarded £3.8 billion to 216 projects.
The projects are designed to create jobs, drive economic growth, help restore people’s pride in the places where they live and spread opportunity more equally. Successful projects in Wales were awarded £208m, including £105m for the following projects in the Cardiff Capital Region:
105 successful bids under round 1 were announced on 3 November 2021, ten of which were in Wales. Within the Cardiff Capital Region there were three successful bids in RCT:
The UK Government has also confirmed there will be a further round of the Levelling Up Fund.
View the list of successful bidders for round 2 of the Levelling Up Fund
View the list of successful bidders for round 1 of the Levelling Up Fund
The Shared Prosperity Fund (SPF) was first proposed in the 2017 Conservative Party manifesto. The vision for the UK Shared Prosperity Fund is to help level up and create opportunity across the UK for people and places. The UK Government has committed to total domestic UK-wide funding at least matching EU receipts, on average reaching around £1.5 billion a year.
The Shared Prosperity Fund supports the levelling up objective of building pride in place and increasing life chances through three investment priorities:
In Wales, the UK Government supports delivery across the regional strategic geographies of South East Wales / Cardiff Capital Region, North Wales, Mid Wales, and South West Wales / Swansea Bay.
To access their allocation of funding, each local authority worked with local partners to agree measurable outcomes and interventions that reflect local needs and opportunities. These formed the basis of an agreed Regional Investment Plan (covering all the Local Authorities in the region) that was approved by UK Government in December 2022. Funding is confirmed for three financial years, and all interventions must end by March 2025.
Rhondda Cynon Taf Council as the designated lead authority, will receive the area’s allocation and undertake strategic management of the fund for South East Wales. The Regional Investment plan recognises that pride in place and increasing life chances can be best achieved by delivery close to local people and businesses and by authorities that understand each place’s unique local context and identity. Interventions will therefore be adapted to suit local characteristics and the differing challenges and opportunities across the region.
The fund also includes a new £559 million adult numeracy programme for the whole UK, Multiply, which will support people with no or low-level maths skills get back into work. The scheme will offer free personal tutoring, digital training, and flexible courses to improve adults’ confidence and numeracy skills.
The UK SPF Prospectus and supporting documents available can be seen via the UK Government website.
| Individual authorities | Core UKSPF | Multiply | Total |
| Blaenau Gwent | £23,301,572 | £4,863,920 | £28,165,492 |
| Bridgend | £19,116,296 | £3,990,295 | £23,106,591 |
| Caerphilly | £28,272,298 | £5,901,499 | £34,173,797 |
| Cardiff | £34,587,594 | £7,219,740 | £41,807,334 |
| Merthyr Tydfil | £22,698,977 | £4,738,136 | £27,437,113 |
| Monmouthshire | £5,919,533 | £1,235,631 | £7,155,164 |
| Newport | £27,177,563 | £5,672,986 | £32,850,549 |
| Rhondda Cynon Taf | £37,320,994 | £7,790,305 | £45,111,298 |
| Torfaen | £20,431,241 | £4,264,774 | £24,696,014 |
| Vale of Glamorgan | £11,606,505 | £2,422,717 | £14,029,222 |
| Total for the Cardiff Capital Region / South East Wales | £230,432,572 | £48,100,003 | £278,532,575 |
Vaughan Gething MS, Minister for Economy, released a written statement when the fund was announced, expressing concerns that the SPF does not meet the UK Government commitment to match the size of the EU funds Wales has had previously and would have qualified for; and that there is not enough focus on communities most in need.
View the UK SPF allocations methodology note on the UK Government website.
A further statement was released by Vaughan Gething when the approval of the Regional Investment Plans were announced by UK Government, highlighting the impact of the delayed approvals.
The statement by Vaughan Gething MS on UK SPF delivery can be viewed on the Welsh Government website
The Strategic Forum for Regional Investment, comprising stakeholders from across Wales, continues to meet to discuss regional investment funding.
The UK Community Renewal Fund (CRF) aimed to support people and communities most in need across the UK, helping pilot new approaches and programmes to tackle local challenges in preparation for the introduction of the SPF. The innovative projects were selected to align with local priorities and support the investment priorities of the CRF programme:
Projects were originally approved to run until June 2020 and were then given the opportunity to extend their delivery timescale until 30 December 2022. All projects have now closed.
The CRF was delivered as a stand-alone pilot, with lead authorities managing the programmes at a local level. UK Government created an index of 100 priority places, based on economic resilience, measured by productivity, household income, unemployment, skills and population density. However, all lead authorities were able to invite bids and co-ordinate a package of applications up to a value of £3m for their areas. The prospectus for the £220m investment can be found at UK Community Renewal Fund: prospectus – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
70 projects were approved in the Cardiff capital region totalling £19,610,821.
Read the full list of the projects that were approved across the UK .
The Community Ownership Fund (COF) is a £150million, UK government fund that helps community groups to protect, through community ownership, assets in their local area which are at risk of being lost.
Groups can bid for up to £250k matched-funding to help take over or run an asset although in exceptional cases, up to £1m is available for sporting assets. In the first round of funding there were three projects funded in Wales valued at £464,258.
The UK Government published an updated prospectus for COF round 2 at the end of May 2022. Below are the main changes from the first round to be aware of:
There are plans to offer development support in the future and the UK Government is currently procuring a provider to support prospective applicants. This is anticipated to be in place later this year.
Assessment criteria that applications will be assessed against remain unchanged.
Projects are advised not to rush their applications and submit when they are ready. The third bidding window of Round 2 opened on 15 February 2023 and will close on 14 April 2023, with further bidding windows expected in 2023 and 2024.
South East Wales Regional Engagement Team
Civic Offices, Angel Street, Bridgend, CF31 4WB
T: 01656 815327 | E: SEWalesRET@bridgend.gov.uk | @SEWalesRET 
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